The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 02...

342. i.e. dangerous to soul-health.

343. In the Mac. Edit. "Abd" for "Sa'id." The latter was a black and a native of Cufa during the first century (A.H.) and is still famous as a traditionist.

344. Arab. "Shirk," giving a partner to Allah, attending chiefly to Christians and idolaters; and in a minor degree to Jews and Guebres. We usually English it by "polytheism," which is clumsy and conveys a wrong idea.

345. Grandson of the Caliph Ali. He is one of the Imams (High-priests) of the Shi'ah school.

346. An eminent traditionist of the eighth century (A.D.)

347. The prayers of the Fast-month and Pilgrimage-month are often said in especial places outside the towns and cities; these are the Indian Id(Eed-)gáh. They have a screen of wall about a hundred yards long with a central prayer-niche and the normal three steps for the preacher; and each extremity is garnished with an imitation minaret. They are also called Namáz-gah and one is sketched by Herklots (Plate iii. fig. 2). The object of the trips thither in Zu'l-Ka'adah and Zú'l-Hijjah is to remind Moslems of the "Ta'aríf," or going forth from Meccah to Mount Arafat.

348. Arab. "Al-Háfi," which in Egyptian means sore-footed as well. He was an ascetic of the eighth and ninth centuries (A.D.). He relates a tradition of the famous soldier-saint Khálid bin Walíd who lies buried like the poet Ka'ab al-Ahbár near Hums (Emessa) once the Bœotia, Phrygia, Abdera, Suabia of Syria now Halbun (pronounced Halbáun) near Damascus. I cannot explain how this Kuraysh noble (a glorious figure in Moslem history) is claimed by the Afghans as one of their countrymen and made to speak Pukhtu or Pushtu, their rough old dialect of Persian. The curious reader will consult my Pilgrimage iii. 322 for the dialogue between Mohammed and Khalid. Again there is general belief in Arabia that the English sent a mission to the Prophet, praying that Khalid might be despatched to proselytise them: unfortunately Mohammed was dead and the "Ingriz" ratted. It is popularly held that no armed man can approach Khalid's grave; but I suppose my revolver did not count.

349. When he must again wash before continuing prayer.

350. Bin Adham; another noted ascetic of the eighth century. Those curious about these unimportant names will consult the great Biographical Dictionary of Ibn Khallikan, translated by Baron MacGuckin de Slane (1842-45).

351. Thus making Bishr the "Imám" (antistes) lit. one who stands in front. In Koran xvii. 74 it means "leader": in ii. 118 Allah makes Abraham an "Imam to mankind."

352. A favourite sentiment in the East: we find it at the very beginning of Sa'di's Gulistan: better a weal-bringing lie than a harm-dealing truth.

353. A penny, one sixth of the drachma.

354. Founder of the Hanbali, fourth (in date) of the four orthodox Moslem schools. The Caliph al-Mu'atasim bi'llah, son of Harun al-Rashid, who believed the Koran to have been created and not a Logos (whatever that may be), co-eternal with Allah, scourged this Imam severely for "differing in opinion" (A.H. 220=833). In fact few of the notable reverends of that day escaped without a caress of the scourge or the sword.

355. A learned man of the eighth century at Bassorah (A.D.).

356. A traditionist of Khorasan in the ninth century (A.D.).

357. "Azal," opp. to "Abad," eternity without end, infinity.

358. Koran lxvi. 6.

359. A traditionist of Al-Medinah, eighth century (A.D.).

360. Arab. "Músá": the Egyptian word was "Mesu," the "child" or the "boy" (brought up in the palace?), and the Hebrews made it "Mosheh" or "one drawn out of the water;" "Mu" in Egypt being water, the Arab "Ma"; whence probably the moderns have derived the dim. "Moyeh;" vulg. Egyptian for water.

361. Koran, chapt. xxviii.: Shu'ayb is our Jethro: Koran, chapt. vii. and xi. Mr Rodwell suggests (p. 101) that the name has been altered from Hobab (Numb. x 29).

362. Arab. "Taub" (Saub), the long shirt popularly written in English Tobe and pronounced so by Egyptians. It is worn by both sexes (Lane, M. E. chapt. i. "Tob") in Egypt, and extends into the heart of Moslem Africa: I can compare it with nothing but a long nightgown dyed a dirty yellow by safflower and about as picturesque as a carter's smock-frock.

363. There is nothing of this in the Koran; and it is a most unhappy addition, as Moses utterly and pretentiously ignored a "next world."

364. Koran xxviii. 22-27. Mohammed evidently confounded the contract between Laban and Jacob (Gen. xxix. 15-39).

365. So says Al Hariri (Ass. of Sasan), "The neighbour before the house and the traveller before the journey." In certain cities the neighbourhood is the real detective police, noting every action and abating scandals (such as orgies, etc.) with a strong hand and with the full consent of public opinion and of the authorities. This loving the neighbour shows evident signs of being borrowed from Christianity.

366. Al-Asamm, a theologian of Balkh, ninth century (A.D.).

367. The founder of the Senior School, for which see Sale Prel. Disc. sect. viii.

368. Thus serving the Lord by sinning against his own body.

369. An Egyptian doctor of the law (ninth century).

370. Koran lxxvii. 35, 36. This is one of the earliest and most poetical chapters of the book.

371. Abu Hanifah was scourged for refusing to take office and was put to death in prison, it is said by poison (A.H. 150=A.D. 767), for a judicial sentence authorising rebellion against the second Abbaside, Al-Mansúr, surnamed Abu'l-Dawánik (Father of Pence) for his exceeding avarice.

372. "Lá rayba fí-hi" says the Koran (ii. 1) of itself; and the saying is popularly applied to all things of the Faith.

373. Arab. "Rijál al-Ghayb," somewhat like the "Himalayan Brothers" of modern superstition. See Herklots (Qanoon-e-Islam) for a long and careful description of these "Mardán-i-Ghayb" (Pers.), a "class of people mounted on clouds," invisible, but moving in a circular orbit round the world; and suggesting the Hindu "Lokapálas." They should not be in front of the traveller nor on his right, but either behind or on his left hand. Hence tables, memorial couplets and hemistichs are required to ascertain the station, without which precaution journeys are apt to end badly.

374. A sweetmeat before noticed.

375. Door-hinges in the east are two projections for the top and bottom of the leaf playing in hollows of the lintel and threshold. It appears to be the primitive form, for we find it in the very heart of Africa. In the basaltic cities of the Hauran, where the doors are of thick stone, they move easily on these pins. I found them also in the official (not the temple) City of Palmyra, but all broken.

376. The effect of the poison and of the incantation which accompanied it.

377. King Omar who had raped her. My sympathies are all with the old woman who rightly punished the royal lecher.

378. Arab. "Zunnár," the Gr. ζώνη. Christians and Jews were compelled by the fanatical sumptuary laws of the Caliph Al-Mutawakkil (A.D. 856) to wear a broad leather belt in public; hence it became a badge of the Faith. Probably it was confounded with the "Janeo" (Brahmanical thread) and the Parsi sacred girdle called Kashti. (Dabistan i, 297, etc.). Both Mandeville and La Brocquière speak of "Christians of the Girdle, because they are all girt above;" intending Jacobites or Nestorians.

379. "Siláh-dár" (Arab. and Pers.)=a military officer of high rank; literally an "armour-bearer," chosen for valour and trustworthiness. So Jonathan had a "young man" (brave) who bare his armour (1 Sam. xiv. 1, 6 and 7); and Goliath had a man that bare the shield before him (ibid. xvii. 7, 41). Men will not readily forget the name of Sulayman Agha, called the Silahdar, in Egypt (Lane M. E. chapt. iv.).

380. It will be told afterwards.

381. The elder brother thus showed himself a vassal and proved himself a good Moslem by not having recourse to civil war.